Preparation - supplements

What supplements to take prior to getting a gum graft?

OK, you have a date booked in, but what supplements can you take pre- and post-op so that your recovery doesn’t totally suck?

The first time I had a gum graft in 2012, I did no preparation and it was miserable.  I prepared obsessively for my second time in 2017 – probably overkill – but I was determined to minimise discomfort.    

I’m not a general believer in vitamins and supplements for day-to-day life, but you’re about to put your body through some surgery/trauma and there are things that it needs to recover.

There are a boatload of recommendations for various vitamins and minerals to be taken prior to any kind of surgery. There is research to back up most of these, due to their role in accelerating wound healing and immune function.  A few useful links are here and here for you to read at your leisure, or you can skip to the summary below. 

I spent days reading up on the research and there does seem to be good evidence that these things help – but A LOT of things apparently help!  I've listed the supplements I personally took below… most are fairly cheap solutions and they have research to support them.  You don’t have to take any of these if you don’t want to, I’m just sharing what I felt was helpful for me.

Multivitamin and mineral formula

• What’s it for?  Instead of buying everything that is supposed to help individually, I just got a multivitamin that looked like it covered all of the bases and was reasonably affordable.  
• What type? Anything that includes high doses of  B vitamins, vitamin K, Biotin, Zinc, Selenium, Chromium.
• What dosage? As directed
• Price? My choice was Wellwoman, which was the cheapest high quality multivitamin/mineral formula I could find that covered all bases.  The Wellman formula is pretty similar, but I went for Wellwoman because of its higher dosage of B vitamins and other lovely things more targeted to supporting healthy skin.

Vitamin C

Your multivitamin of choice may or may not already have a ton of vitamin C, but we’re talking about way more than the recommended daily intake here so you may want to boost it. 

• What’s it for?  Helps immune response, protects against free radical damage and also aids the production of collagen and components of connective tissue. It’s considered so essential to these functions that A&E patients are given infusions of vitamin C.  
• What type? L-absorbic acid is the gold standard.
• What dosage? Take high dosages for 2 weeks prior to surgery to ensure that your blood concentration is high.  Continue with 1-2g per day during the healing period
• Price? Cheap as chips. I either get it in powder form from Amazon for a few quid. But it is also found in most cold and flu vitamins, where you can get the added bonus of zinc (which also helps healing). I quite like Sambucol because it tastes delicious.

Co-enzyme Q10 / Ubiquinol

There are several studies purporting a link between Co Q10 and gum health. Personally, I don't feel the need to take it all the time, only for the surgery. 

• What’s it for? Improved mitochondrial energy activity and reduces recovery time. Especially helpful for gum tissue.
• What type?  Ubiquinol is the reduced form of CO Q10 that is better absorbed in the body
• What dosage? 150mg daily, before and after surgery.
• Price? These are usually pretty expensive - I got mine from Amazon

Bromelain

A lot of the discomfort after your gum graft will be due to the swelling.  Since I am a champion sweller, this was one of interest to me. Skip if this does not apply to you, and please consult your surgeon because it may interfere with certain medications.

• What’s it for? Used to reduce swelling after surgery or injury 
• What type? Studies seem to be mainly on the enteric coated type (the kind that only dissolves once it reaches your intestines
• What dosage? Start 3 days before surgery and continue for 7 days after. 500-2,500mg per day
• Price? I got mine on Amazon, as it was the only place that I could find the enteric type

Do you have anything to add?  As ever, everyone is different, and we can help each other by sharing our experiences!